General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Report Indicates Snowden/Greenwald Lied About Key Claims [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)Snowden has released evidence.
The problem is that evidence shows the programs in question were not targeted at US persons. In fact, the documents show that ominous programs like XKeyscore had explicit processes in place to exclude US persons.
So far, the only program that Snowden has documented that targeted US persons is the phone metadata program. Problem there is the data doesn't belong to us US persons. It belongs to the phone company under a 1979 SCOTUS decision, and the phone companies have been selling the metadata for years. That makes it kinda hard to argue that the metadata program is a violation of privacy rights under current law.
But that doesn't fit with the "NSA is spying on all of us" narrative that Greenwald and others are trying to sell.